ANTH 202 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Tooth Eruption, Charnel House, Pubic Symphysis
Document Summary
Good preservation conditions can provide bioarchaeologists with nearly complete human skeletons. But sometimes, only the hardest bones survive parts of the skull, the central portions of the limb bones, and the hardest portion of the human skeleton the teeth. Ancient cultural practices sometimes mix human skeletal remains together, making it difficult to group skeletal remains by individual. Many eastern native american tribes, for example, laid bodies out in a charnel house, where bodies were allowed to decompose in the open. The bones were often then cleaned of remaining flesh, bundled together, and ritually placed into a communal grave (these are known as bundle burials). Over time, the bones of various individuals typically commingle. Careful excavation can sometimes help regroup bones by individual, but often this is impossible. As at the stillwater marsh, postdepositional processes can scatter the once intact burials. In fact, of the 500 individuals recovered, only 54 were encountered as intact primary burials.
